


rather chase the sun

by sandyk



Series: rapture [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Peter Parker, F/M, Fake Marriage, college times, ignoring the post credits scene, slightly different endgame, turns into real marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:35:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27248143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: MJ proposes to Peter because she really needs his dental insurance, but it doesn't take very long for their marriage to become something real that requires work to last.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: rapture [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989499
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fifteen





	rather chase the sun

**Author's Note:**

> For the trope bingo spot Marriage. The short story mentioned is Rapture of the Deep by Amy Hempel. Inspired a little by that tumblr post about two guys marrying for the tuition benefits. Literally just googled questions to ask before getting married for that section. The Bea Arthur place is the Ali Forney Center for LGBT homeless youth. Title from Janelle Monae's I like that. Thank thank you A!!!

MJ fundamentally understood it was kind of a ridiculous proposal and she should, and could have thought of better options. Though, honestly, she was in a ton of pain and she did do a bunch of research. No one had good dental insurance (except Peter), no government body was offering help, her college wouldn't do it either, like, what the fuck? And everyone was like, try a dental school, but they wanted money, too. 

So she ridiculously said seriously, but maybe as a joke, that Peter should marry her so she could get that sweet Avengers health insurance. She promised she would be happy to consummate the marriage. After all, they used to date. In high school. She was his best friend in close proximity. She was babbling, he knew they dated in high school. 

He said, "I can, I think I could just ask the doctors?"

"They do favors for ex-girlfriends?" 

Peter frowned. "I don't know, I haven't asked. Or I could just give you the money. I have a whole inheritance locked up somewhere."

"That would work, too. But also, you know, married! We could be married! Those crazy kids." She smiled. 

Peter nodded. "But we're not, if we were married, what if you met someone?"

"Or if you did, right?" She felt so insane, but her jaw ached like a motherfucker. She said, "Just tell 'em you're in an open marriage, I don't care. Because I won't."

"Is that what you'd say if you wanted to date someone? And how long do you think we'd be married?"

She thought maybe he was coming around. He was apparently insane, too. She said, "Well, a year should cover it, right?"

"I don't know," he said. "I'll check on the other options, they make a lot more sense. I'll check."

"Great," she said. She had invited him over to her apartment. It was a very small apartment but it was cheaper than the dorms. All the scholarships and grants covered her rent, some food, books, internet, tuition, but she couldn't really cover what looked like a pretty big dental bill. If only she'd just broken her arm. Or she was trying to do something about her cranky ankle. 

She kissed Peter on the cheek goodbye. Then she waited. It would take a few days, she thought. Before he said no. Or told her the Avengers insurance was ready to help her, because Spider-man was just that important. 

Instead he came back in two days and said heavily, "Okay, we can get married. If you still want to."

"You couldn't get your money?" She felt bad for him. She was being insane. 

He shrugged. It occurred to her suddenly that this was very Peter. He would definitely choose the option that would help someone else and make him the most inconvenienced or giving up the most. He didn't get that from the Parkers, May stood up for herself. She didn't have that kind of urge to burn herself down and keep everyone else warm if there were other choices. It was just something inside Peter, inflamed by all that time with Tony Stark. 

He said, "I'm gonna tell May we got back together and you need the health insurance. I'll just tell everyone else we got married."

"Are you sure?" She felt the most acutely ridiculous and awful as she ever had. 

"Yeah," Peter said, smiling. He took her hand. "It'll be fine."

"Can we wait to consummate after I get my teeth taken care of? Just, like, I'm in a lot of pain," she said. 

"We don't have to, ever," Peter said. "It's fine."

"I'm not offering as pay, I'm saying, like, I would enjoy having sex with you," MJ said. "But not when I'm taking this much ibuprofen."

"Okay, okay," Peter said. 

They got married three days later. MJ checked with Peter before showing up to City Hall, so she didn't wear something super casual and he was in a suit. She wore a simple dress. She got her hair braided tightly so Peter would know it was special. She didn't want him to think she was taking this casually. They were doing this thing. 

He brought rings, very simple ones. She wondered how cheap they were. She said, "I read a short story once, a woman's ring had a dent in it and she told someone it was because the man who gave it to her bit it to show her it was real, and then he'd bit her finger, saying that was real, too." 

Peter smiled and handed over his ring. "It's real." He fiddled with her ring and then put it in his pants pocket. "I'll bite you later."

They took a few smiling pictures, had their witnesses who were just the couple getting married after them take some longer view ones. It felt special, she could tell for Peter it felt special. She wasn't the absolute worst, ruining everything for him and Peter still doing it anyway. 

She posted it on all her socials, like, "we're nuts, but we're doing it!" She got a few "knew you'd get back together" and a few "who is that?" but mostly just congratulations. She called her dad. She sent her mom a text. Peter moved out of his dorm and into her apartment. He started paying half the rent which freed up a little money. 

Ned was at Cal Poly and he and Peter had a few intense skype calls. Mostly when she was out of the apartment, because she suspected Ned had written her off. She hadn't kept in touch, not like Peter had, and she was the one who was desperate and tricking Peter. That also sucked. Except when she asked Peter, "Ned thinks I'm an asshole, right?"

"No, not at all," Peter said. She had her first dentist appointment with the Avengers dentist the next day. They'd waited a week. Peter said, "I told him the same thing I told May. He's mad at me, he thinks I'm being too reckless with my heart." Peter rolled his eyes. "He actually said that, like we're in a bad Hallmark movie."

"That's too poetic for a Hallmark movie, sounds more pretentious indie, frankly." 

"Well, we're in neither," Peter said. 

They slept in the same bed. As much as either them slept, apparently. Peter went out being Spider-man two nights a week she'd discovered, and those two nights he got home after midnight. MJ was in her junior year and she wasn't going to stop being an activist and she still liked to create art. She was very busy, even through her current haze of pain. 

The Avengers dentist had a very minimalist clean office at the Compound. She made very disapproving noises as she painfully poked at MJ's mouth. She said, "Dental care in this country is so badly done. I'm sorry." 

MJ needed two root canals, some kind of gum resurfacing, all four impacted wisdom teeth removed, and a cleaning. The dentist decided to do it all in some kind of big extravaganza of surgery. Thanks to Avengers insurance, MJ was scheduled to come in the next day. 

Peter drove her down to the Compound from Somerville and waited for her. Even the anesthesia felt expensive, like the sheet over her, and the walls around her. She closed her eyes. When she woke up, she felt out of it and wrapped in very soft cotton. Peter grinned at her. He helped her up and got her in the car. She passed out again for the ride home. 

The next time she woke up she was in her pajamas, in her bed and felt a dull ache somewhere, maybe not in the room. It was there, but not quite. "Good drugs," she said. Her mouth was only slightly working. 

Peter appeared next to her. He'd probably been there a while. "Hey," he said. He smiled and tucked her in tighter to bed. "Wait, do you have to pee?"

"Yes," MJ said. "Yes, I do." He helped her up and stood outside the door while she used the bathroom. She washed her hands for a while. 

Peter opened the door and said, "Your hands are pretty clean now, MJ." 

She nodded and dried her hands. Before she could do that multiple times, he guided her back to bed. He said, "I get why you had to get married, you had a lot wrong in there. No hard candy for a while."

"I like hard candy," she said. "Wait, do I?"

"I've actually never seen you have any," Peter said. He snuggled in next to her. He felt good. He said, "I have some serious painkillers for you and the dentist is coming by in a few days to take out the gauze and do some other check ups."

"Damn, your insurance is nuts," MJ said. "Housecalls? To a whole other state?"

Peter nodded. "They don't have many patients, usually. Also, the dentist has a friend here in Boston. In Somerville, actually, so not that far from here."

"Okay," MJ said. "I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty?"

Peter handed her a cold glass with a straw. She started to sip slowly from the straw. Then she wasn't thirsty so she gestured with the glass towards Peter. He made it magically go away. It was nice being married to him. "Thank you," she said. "Sorry about all this. I should have found a way that wasn't making you marry me."

He tucked her in again and she closed her eyes. He said, "It's fine. We're fine."

She recovered pretty quickly and with no complications. She went to a different dentist for her cleaning and the hygienist said it looked like really excellent surgery. 

So the reason for getting married was all done, and now they were just putting on the show of being married, she thought. She figured. She assumed the costs of this foolish wackiness were about to hit Peter, and she just wanted him to be happy. 

He was a pretty good husband, much like he'd been a good boyfriend. She understood the Spider-man duties, so she was hopefully a good wife. When she saw him without his watch, she never asked him about the remaining scars on his wrist from that asshole when they were juniors. Before the Blip. 

At their one month anniversary, she made him dinner. She waited until he wasn't holding a fork or a drink and said, "Up for fucking tonight? I have to admit, I'm pretty eager."

He laughed. "We don't have to. If you don't want to. I appreciate all the faking you're doing about how much you like me, we're good."

"I clearly want to, I just said I'm eager. Do you think I'd fake anything when we're just sitting here, having dinner I made?" She reached across the tiny table and grabbed his hand. "You know I like you, right?"

"I meant like like," Peter said. "I meant romantic like, I know you like me as a person." 

"Romantic like is a weird phrase," MJ said. "Like, let me be super clear: the only reason I thought this marriage thing was worth even proposing was because it was you. If Ned had Avengers insurance, I wouldn't have asked him."

"Well, Ned wouldn't have married you," Peter said. "It's not, it's not like you wanted to get back together, right?"

"I'm okay with it," she said. "Don't you like me like that? Oh, God, I'm sorry, I didn't even think of that. Wow, I think I'm the shit, clearly."

"Oh, no, I'm totally into that, you. I'm into you," Peter said. He'd let go of her hand and now he took it back. "I just don't want to, like, I want you to be into me." 

"I am, you're hot and you're great," she said. 

"Oh, okay," Peter said. "That's good."

The sex was way better than high school. It was absolutely good sex. Peter liked to go down on her and he always listened and she was always worn out. They had sex before they fell asleep and sometimes in the morning, and one Sunday they basically spent entirely in bed with lots of naps in between. 

But MJ still worried. Her grades were up, her health was definitely in great shape, and all she had to do was trap Peter. She didn't like that. She sat at lunch with him and May and tried to be the kind of wife Peter deserved. May smiled tightly at her and they were very careful with each other. MJ knew Peter straight up hated lying to May and he was, basically. 

Even though they had already decided to go to college in Boston, at different colleges, but not that far away from each other, they still broke up the summer before college. MJ couldn't explain why they broke up a month after they had, but she felt like there was no going back. 

Then they were both in Boston and they didn't know many people and the only person Peter knew who knew he was Spider-man was MJ. So they had to be friends. They were best friends, basically. They'd both made new friends and dated other people. MJ had really been open to learning more about her sexuality and having a lot of sex her freshman year. Peter was less open, but he dated. It didn't bother MJ. Sophomore year was about the same with less sex for MJ and more for Peter. They both ended up with arrangements that had them staying in Boston the summer before junior year. They'd almost got an apartment together, but Peter found something he liked more. 

Now they were living together. They were having sex with each other. They almost always woke up around the same time. MJ would make breakfast, Peter would fuss with the coffee maker he brought into their home. Mostly, he made a good latte. His weird love for cashew milk was confusing but it tasted fine. 

MJ found half her fellow students functionally worthless. They reminded her of the worst of Tony Stark, only much much less intelligent. None of those students were smart enough to let a Rhodey or Pepper Potts into their lives. The other half of her fellow students she did like. The smartest kid in all of Pella, Iowa was generally okay company. The ones she'd known since freshman year had all met Peter if they'd met her more than twice. "Why get married at twenty, though," Iowa girl said. 

"You would not believe the quality of his dental insurance," MJ said, smiling. "Also, love, great sex." 

One night, about two months into being married, MJ was on the bed flipping through her notes for a midterm while Peter was tinkering with something relating to his webshooters spread out on the floor. She said, "I wasn't kidding when I said if you met someone, you can date. I don't want you to miss out."

He looked at her and then back at the mess on the floor. "Is this you saying you've met someone you want to date?"

"No, not in the slightest, I'm good. I just want you to be happy," she said. 

"Got it," he said, grumbling a little. "Fine."

That didn't go as she planned. Worse, two weeks later, Peter said he had a date. Not worse, it was great, MJ thought. She said, "Awesome."

"He says he's totally okay with an open marriage arrangement," Peter said. He wasn't exactly meeting her eyes. 

"Lots of people think it's cool to reconsider how we, you know, do relationships," MJ said. "I hope it goes great. Text me if you want me out of the apartment."

Peter pressed his lips together and then he said, "Probably go to his place." 

Peter and Whoever had a nice first date, apparently. He stopped having sex with her which she thought wasn't very open marriage of him, but Peter wasn't the kind of guy who actually wanted an open marriage. So she was fine. 

Somewhere around the fourth date, Peter texted her not to come home until later. She didn't want to bother him, but also later was not a firm time. He probably didn't know himself, she thought. 

She sat in the library and felt, for a long moment, very lonely. The only person she was ever completely honest with was Peter. She couldn't talk about Peter with Peter. He was her closest friend even before her stupid proposal. She didn't want to be judged more than she was already judging herself. She wasn't going to confess to her friends. 

MJ firmly wanted Peter to be happy. She didn't want him to miss out on meeting someone awesome who made him happy because she'd had him help her in a big trick, essentially. She smiled as she thought that she should write some online advice column. Which started her on a research tear and she spent the next two hours reading old posts from the three or four advice bloggers she'd identified as possible people to write to. 

It was basically later. It was four hours after her usual time to come home. She didn't have any texts from Peter. She walked home and very quietly opened the door. She heard two voices in the bedroom so she very quietly closed the door and walked downstairs. One of the voices sounded angry. The not Peter voice. She would just wait in the lobby. She studied there very very occasionally. It wasn't the worst. 

Ten minutes after she'd hunkered down in a corner with a good memoir (she was so in love with Ocean Vuong, she was going to listen to the audio book to hear him say all of it), she saw a very nice looking young man walking briskly out. Peter was following him. Peter noticed her and kept going, the date did not notice her, thank goodness. 

She was trying to decide if she should go back upstairs when Peter came back inside. It had only been a few minutes. Peter didn't look happy. He stood over her and grabbed her bag. He said, "That didn't work." He made a face of frustration? Anger? Irritation? Resignation?

"I'm sorry," she said. She stood up and once he started heading upstairs, she followed him. "I'm sorry it didn't work."

"I'm not an open marriage person," Peter said as they got inside the apartment. "Not even an open fake marriage."

"I'm sorry. You know, we can get divorced sooner than a year, if you want," she said. "I'm not saying that because I want to, by the way."

He was changing the sheets on their bed. She wondered if he felt it was just necessary to separate Handsome Guy from the two of them. Maybe they just needed to be changed. Peter said, "I think we have a -- you know that every marriage I've known either hasn't ended or ended because someone died? My parents were really happy. Ben and May were happy. Ned's parents are still married, Tony and Pepper, you know that one. I think people get married and stay married."

"And my experience is different," MJ said. "So you think since my parents have at least four marriages between them, I don't take it seriously?"

"Not like that," Peter said. "But just, I know we said we'd get divorced but it feels like, divorce isn't an easy option."

"Okay," MJ said. "Okay. Well, the secret to any relationship is honesty and good communication, right? I honestly like being married to you. I wish we'd gotten back together before we started this. Then it would just be this silly stupid thing we did. And not, like, something I tricked you into."

Peter sat on the bed and looked at her. He looked sad. "You didn't trick me. You were very clear about what all this was, and I said yes, and there's no tricking here. Come on, let's talk more in the morning, I'm exhausted."

"Didn't you get the shit kicked out of you around lunch? I think I saw that on the news," she said. She undressed and put on her pajamas. She got under the covers and watched Peter doing the same. 

"Yeah, what the fuck?" He took off his shirt and she could see the bruises on his back. They had to have faded already. They didn't look great. "Who thinks they can beat up Spider-man? They never win."

"Everyone thinks they'll be the one," MJ said. He got in bed with his back to her. She just made herself the big spoon. She rested her hand on his waist. "Go to sleep." She thought, I love you, but she didn't say it. 

He held her hand and really did fall asleep a few seconds later. 

In the morning, they both had a million things to do and when she got home an hour before midnight, Peter had fallen asleep studying on the couch. She moved his books and laptop away, and then nudged his knee. "Go sleep in the bed, baby," she said. 

He blinked a few times and then said, "Yup." He sort of half walked, half crawled into bed. It was pretty funny. 

The first break either of them had was literally the day before Thanksgiving. "Where are we going?" Peter had just woken up and was watching something on Netflix. "For Thanksgiving?"

"Well, my dad and my stepmother said we can come by whenever. They're in the Bronx now. He hasn't met you since that one time in high school, so he really wants you to come by," MJ said. "My mom, in New Jersey, has all of her kids besides me coming. I'm the youngest, her youngest --"

"I know," Peter said. "I know all that."

"Anyway," MJ said. "She would also appreciate a stop by. But we can also do it the day after Thanksgiving. She knows she lives in New Jersey. What've you got?"

"I have May," Peter said. "She's still with Happy, so that actually means Pepper, May, Happy and Morgan up at the lakehouse. That's also how I do Christmas and New Year's by the way."

MJ nodded. "Okay, you choose." She realized they'd actually never talked in the morning like they said they would last week. They'd had sex a lot (defining a lot as four times, always with Peter initiating) since then, but not actual talking about the state of them. That was a thing they should do, she thought. Instead, she waited for him to answer. 

Peter thought and fast forwarded through about ten minutes of some action movie. It looked dull and way too white. Peter said, "Let's go in the morning, mid day to your dad's, then we have an out because we have to get the lakehouse by five, so we should leave New York City by three. Then in the morning, on Friday, we drive to New Jersey and we can come back here Saturday and actually relax."

"I like that plan," she said. "Should we bring food? I don't really bake."

"Bring something to drink? People like soda. They like coke. Oh, we could go to that Rock Candy Fizz place and get weird sodas for everyone. Not too weird, but they have like Dark Cherry Dr. Pepper which is awesome." He grinned and handed her the remote. "Pick something to watch, we don't have to do anything for at least the next two hours."

"Dark Cherry Dr. Pepper does not sound awesome, but that's a good idea," MJ said. She settled on the first Fast and the Furious. That would make both of them happy. She took a deep breath. "Also, before we have to visit all our families, we should probably have that talk." She sighed. 

"You start," Peter said, looking over at her. 

"Okay," she said. "Before you made me go first, I would have started with saying I love you, but now I'm reconsidering." 

He grabbed her waist and practically burrowed into her neck with his massive head. He said, "You don't mean that."

"About reconsidering? Yeah. I don't. I do love you. I wish, I want it to be like we did get back together and stupid got married, you know? I would rewrite it. But mostly, I just want you to be happy," she said, staring down the back of his head and all his stupid thick hair. 

He turned a little. He said, "I was secretly hoping you were just doing this really elaborate plan for us to get back together and dental insurance until you made me date other people. I wasn't holding it against you, it was just, maybe?"

"I didn't make you date other people, I wanted you to not miss out, okay?" She pulled a little on his hair. "So I think we've decided, I feel okay saying we're not calling this a fake marriage anymore?"

"Yes, please," he said, holding her waist tighter. 

"Good," she said. "But before, we should absolutely have celebratory sex before we go get disgusting soda for all our family, before that? My sister, the eldest sister, she sent me this article about questions you should ask before you get married. She added some passive aggressive comment about how she wished she'd had it before she got married the first time."

"We have to do a quiz?" He flopped onto his back. 

MJ skimmed her phone until she found it. "These are good questions. Okay, number one, do we want kids?"

"Yes," Peter said. "Yes, right? Not right now."

"Twenty-five," MJ said. "That seems good. And if our contraception fails and I get knocked up before we're twenty-five?"

Peter glanced at her and then back to Vin Diesel. He said, "Um. I hate going first. It feels like I say the wrong thing and you're back on getting divorced."

MJ rolled her eyes. "That's why these are good questions. If I ended up pregnant, it's straight home for the abortion. Does your Avengers insurance cover that?"

"I have no idea," he said, exhaling. "And yes, before twenty-five, in the case of contraceptive failure, I think abortion is the best way to go."

"Yeah, because I was secretly anti-abortion and was just hiding it really well," MJ said. "Okay, if we have trouble conceiving in the future, how do you feel about fertility treatments and adoption or maybe no kids?"

Peter didn't take his eyes off the screen. "I think adoption is great, but also, it's not something to do lightly. I've heard there's a lot of kids who don't get adopted who could use a white dad and black mom. We would be good at that. Also, though, I'd like some little Jones kids. Hope they don't get my ears."

She kissed his cheek. "This is going well so far. Next question, what do you consider cheating? What would violate your vows? Oh, the suggestions for cheating including watching porn. I don't think watching porn is cheating. Unless you're getting your porn perched outside someone's windows. Or if it's someone you know. I don't mind flirting. But, from now on, I don't want you even kissing anyone who's not me. Unless we decide to change our minds on that."

Peter patted her thigh. "I don't watch people having sex, at all. I mean, yes, porn, sometimes, but not using my powers. That's awful. I don't want any kind of open marriage. Not for me. I only want you."

"Aww," MJ said. "Next question. Money. Finances. Are you okay with assuming my debt? Are you okay sharing your money with me? What would you do with a windfall? Feelings on savings, gambling, purchases - what's an indulgence? How much would you pay for Ned's birthday present? Or mine?"

"Ouch," Peter said. "Okay, technically, I have, um, millions. But it's all tied up in accounts and stocks and really, Pepper's in charge of it. And I don't have access until I'm twenty five except for tuition and rent. And some other expenses. I don't, I don't have any big plans for it. Probably just let it sit there until our kids need it for college. And I'd like a nice place in New York City. But not a mansion on Central Park, I mean more a house in Queens. I don't have student loans, do you?"

"I don't," MJ said. "Really, millions?"

"Last time I asked it's over ten and under a hundred," Peter said, sighing. "You know, Tony."

"He could have left you a lot more," MJ said. 

"Yeah, that's how I think about it," Peter said, smiling. "But the question is, are we sharing it?"

"We didn't sign a pre-nup and I assume Tony didn't think you'd marry someone he had to protect you from, so legally, yeah. But in practice. Um. I'd kinda want to give half of it away. I mean, talk to someone first about all our kids and all that. But charity is a thing," MJ said. "And advocacy."

"Yeah, I'm good with that. I just don't want to be a millionaire. But I enjoy some of the pluses. Gambling is bad. Savings are good. We should, we can revisit this one," Peter said. "These questions are tough."

"I know," MJ said. "I vote we revisit all your money when my lease expires. If we can afford somewhere with a separate room for you to tinker and do chemicals, and a larger bathroom? I think we should do that. A bathtub would be amazing."

"You're right," Peter said. "I already, when I was eighteen and I actually had a little access I gave to the food kitchen May volunteered at, and that place Bea Arthur funded."

"Those are good places," MJ said. 

"Let's, um, okay, when it's time to find a new place and pay tuition, we can go and talk to the financial person. Take out some more money to give away," Peter said. 

MJ nodded. "Got it, got it. We're gonna put this down as talk about more. A lot more."

Peter said, "Yeah."

"Next question --"

"Noooo," Peter said. He pulled her on top of him and said, "Sex. Then more questions."

"Fine," MJ said. She put her phone down and took off her shirt. "Sex, please."

It continued to be really great sex. She was pretty sure Peter genuinely liked her on top. When they were done and sated and in the shower together cleaning up, she said, "We could use some of your inheritance to get really top of the line strap ons, and ethically made lube."

Peter laughed and said, "We could. Honestly, Tony would absolutely approve of that."

They had a great lunch at this place MJ loved and then went to the fizzy soda shop. Peter was definitely right, everywhere they were going, people would love weird soda. As they were driving back to their apartment, as Peter was driving, MJ said, "It's a mindfuck. That you're a multimillionaire. You swear it's not like half a billion or something, right?"

Peter drove perfectly, the little ass. He said, "It is a mindfuck. That's why I don't want to know the full number. I can't touch most of it until I'm twenty-five, seriously. So I basically don't have to think about it until then. If it's not tuition or rent, I can only withdraw, like, um, fifty thousand. Per year."

"You know that's more than my mom made most of her working life?" MJ sighed. Peter knew that. 

Peter said, "I already used up most of this year, too. Sorry. That's why I couldn't, you know, just pay for your dentist. If I was just asking Tony, it would be no problem, he probably would have paid for everything. But instead it's me, talking to the nice finance guy and I chickened out. I should have, I should have just asked for everything I could get and when he tried to talk me out of it, just be like, okay, you win, I won't do it after this time." Peter sighed. "So I just asked for some and it wasn't enough. I checked with the dental school. Still wouldn't have paid for everything you needed."

"You know it's okay, right?" She gripped his thigh and let go. "It's definitely not your fault or anything you should feel guilt about." She definitely felt guilt about it. "What did you do with the money you got?"

"Bought our rings," he said. "It's really real gold. Recycled ethically."

"How much were our rings, Peter?"

Peter paused. "About forty six hundred. Dollars. For both."

"That's nuts," MJ said. "In the future, we talk about any purchase over, um, five hundred dollars. Just a check in, okay?" 

"I totally agree. I was gonna spend six hundred on May's Christmas gift. It's a really nice TV."

MJ said, "That's okay. Don't spend that much on me. But it's okay for May, she deserves nice stuff."

"That was surprisingly painless," Peter said. "I'm gonna hate myself, but okay, launch the next question."

"Okay, I'm just going to run through the rest of them. How did your parents fight? Do you like my family? I like yours, so that's okay. Where are we on doing things by ourselves, like solo Peter time? This is separate from the porn question, by the way. I don't care if you masturbate. If I'm there with you, let me watch or help. But if I'm not, go for it. How do you say I love you, do you know how I do it, um." She kept skimming the article. "Religion. What do I do that annoys you? Future, like, ten years from now."

They were finally home. They left the soda in the trunk and went upstairs. They only had one car, Peter's. Which was fine, and Peter's car was only two years old. She wondered if he'd bought it new when he got his inheritance. Maybe she was supposed to ask. 

Peter slumped on the couch. "Oh, man. Okay. My parents didn't fight a lot. I don't remember how they argued. Ben and May barely argued. I guess the implication is how I fight? I suck, I let things build up and then I'm just an asshole. I should work on that."

MJ nodded. Peter said, "I like your dad, your mom, she's fine, I guess. I feel like she doesn't appreciate you. I like your brothers and sisters, but Marcus's wife is, sorry, she's just unpleasant."

"We all agree about Marcy," MJ said. 

"I like when you do things on your own," Peter said. "I love your activism. I also don't care if you masturbate. Like, go for it."

"Oh," MJ said. "It's not on the list but it was on another one I looked at. What, um, ugh, you're you, this doesn't really apply. But for me, if I'm brain-dead, shut that machine off."

Peter nodded. "I don't know if I'd end up like that. Healing and all that. But if somehow I were definitely brain dead, yeah, shut the machines down. That's a really good one."

"How do I say I love you?"

Peter made his scrunchy annoyed face. "I don't like that love language idea."

"You don't know me, since you spent all that time doubting if I wanted you," MJ said, sitting next to him.

"Is that me not knowing you, or me being insecure?" He nudged her with his knee. "Isn't there a motel near your dad's place? If we start tonight and stay there, we could avoid traffic tomorrow."

"Ugh, motels. Probably booked, too. Let's just drive in the morning," MJ said. 

"Religion," Peter said. "I guess I'm Christian? I've only been in church for weddings and funerals. And you do a lot of things that annoy me. Like, you can really just tell me without being sarcastic if you're upset about something. Or scared or whatever. You can trust me to take that seriously. I don't like the way you are around your mom. She, she doesn't get you, and it doesn't matter how much you're nice to her or let her be a bitch to you."

"We're going to have fun at Mom's on Friday, huh?" MJ crossed her arms tight across her chest. "And you have ten years in our future and then it's my turn."

Peter leaned into her. "Also I love you. Ten years in the future, um. Hopefully I'm still alive. Spider-man, that could all go really bad. We're still married. I have my PhD and I'm doing, like, research or something for SI. We have a great place in Queens, a nice house. But not in the suburbs. And we have kids. And a cat. I want a cat. And you're busy doing everything." 

"And my mom never visits," MJ said. She uncrossed her arms. "Um. Why wasn't there a cat or dog or no pet question? I like dogs more than cats."

"You get a dog, I have a cat. There we go." Peter shifted and then his head was in her lap, looking up at her. "Okay, unload on me."

"My parents were awful to each other. I think I suck, too. I always want to fight, instead of just talking about it. We both need to work on that. Hmm. I like that you have your own stuff, but I wish you did a lot less solo Spider-man. When we're back in New York, you should get some back up. Or have people you can rely on. Other superheroes, I mean. You need to ask for help. I think you hate the love language idea because you do all of them. I'm as religious as you are."

Peter said, "Okay, how do I annoy you?"

"So many ways," she said. "Really, not a lot. I think you're too nice, but you know that. I hate your perceptiveness, because I am deep and layered. It's not just that I don't trust you, okay?" She closed her eyes. She inhaled. "I hate that you act like nothing's wrong when you're kind of a mess. Like, you have a lot of trauma from that time you were impaled and someone almost sawed your hand off, and the Blip and Tony's dying, which is just the incidents I know about - but you're always like, la la la."

"I don't sing," Peter said. When she opened her eyes, he was clenching his jaw a little. "Thank you for not saying it with sarcasm."

"In the future, in ten years, I think you're right," MJ said. "We have a cat and a dog. The dog is mine, but he likes you more. The cat is yours but she likes me more. And we have actually done more than just say we suck because we're still together and we don't have awful, stupid arguments." She didn't know what to do with her hands. "God, we should probably cover race."

"Like, do I know what a microaggression is? Yes," Peter said. "I'm usually not sure how to act when it happens to you, when people do it to you. I know I'm not supposed to step in and white man all over you. But I watch what you do and go from there. I wouldn't knowingly make you be around someone who was racist or an abuser."

"What do you say about my hair?"

"It's beautiful," Peter said. "How can I help you with your hair?"

"Good," MJ said. "You've known me a long time, haven't you?"

"Yet I also know you're not responsible for educating me. And never compare your skin to food or drink. Don't call your beauty exotic," Peter said. 

MJ said, "Okay, I feel like we're probably okay on that."

Peter said, "Can we have sex again? This was all so hard."

"Please," she said. 

MJ's dad loved the awful soda. He laughed and said, "When my baby girl isn't in the room, I might have a lot to say about dark cherry."

"Dad, gross," MJ said. 

MJ's stepmother had made a great spread and it was fun catching up with both of them. MJ's dad genuinely liked Peter and tended to assume anything MJ did was a good and wise choice. 

The traffic was horrible on the way to the lakehouse. They listened to a podcast MJ picked. Midway through the second episode, Peter said, "I'm not gonna be nice, right? That's what you want? I can't listen to this anymore, MJ."

"Got it," she said. She switched to Song Exploder, everyone liked that. Of course, the first one that came up was an artist talking about recording a song before the Blip, and then returning to it six months later when everyone came back. She skipped to the next one. 

Peter smiled. "Thank you." 

"Just don't apologize for asking for what you want," MJ said. 

Somehow May seemed to sense something had changed, she was much less tense around MJ. Like she could tell they weren't faking anything. It was probably because Peter was so relaxed. She said, "Are you going to be this nice around my mom tomorrow?"

Peter had had two beers and they were in the two minutes when it was still affecting him. He giggled and rubbed his mouth and then said, "No. You started this, I don't like your mom."

Pepper said, "How did you start this?" Happy was buzzing around, apparently he did most of the Thanksgiving cooking. May was in the kitchen with him, and Morgan was napping in Pepper's lap. 

Peter said, "We did this quiz you're supposed to do before you get married, but we figured three months in was better. One of the questions was do you like your partner's family, and the only family member either of us don't like is MJ's mom." Peter had already sobered up. "I don't like her, MJ loves her."

"It feels braggy that you're saying this when we're with your family," MJ said. "OOooh, my family is wonderful, your mom is the worst."

"She's not the worst," Peter said, leaning forward. "She doesn't appreciate you. Sometimes she's not even nice to you." 

"Now I don't like her," Pepper said, smiling. "Tony and I were lucky, neither of us really had family to like or dislike. What were the other questions?"

MJ glared at Peter. Peter said, "I don't remember." He smiled at MJ. "I bet you and Tony had it a lot easier on the money questions."

Pepper said, "It sounds like a good quiz. Three months in is better than a year in or even later."

"Even if mostly what we got out of it is that Peter hates my mother?" MJ glared at him again.

"There is no way that was a surprise to you," Peter said. 

"You better not be being disrespectful or rude to MJ's mother," May said as she came in. "Dinner in five minutes."

"No, he hides it pretty well, but I can tell," MJ said. "I'm starving and we already had half a dinner at my dad's."

Dinner was excellent. Pepper had assigned them a guest room in the very back. MJ was moderately tipsy. As Peter came in the room from the bathroom and closed the door, she pulled him over to her by the waist of his pajama pants. "MJ," he said. "Come on."

"You don't want a blowjob? Cover your mouth so no one hears," she said. She was definitely getting good at this set of skills. His legs actually shook when he came. He barely remembered to tuck himself back in when he went to the bathroom for water for her after she swallowed. "Thanks," she said. 

"Oh, like it's not your turn now," he said. It was her turn and she arched her back and grabbed at the sheets when she came. But she was very quiet. 

But the actual best part was falling asleep around him, cuddled up with him, like that. He kissed her forehead.


End file.
